Trump pushes failed Latin America policy now reflected in Guatemala

Since coming into power, the Trump administration has pursued a Latin America policy that is both deeply cynical and disadvantageous to the interests of the United States. Nowhere has this been clearer than in Central America, where the Trump administration has ignored the lessons of history and adopted a profoundly misguided approach to the two most pressing issues confronting the region of corruption and migration.

To understand how, look to Guatemala, which held presidential elections last month. For nearly 30 years, it has struggled to emerge from the long shadow cast by its brutal civil war, which pitted a left wing insurgency against a series of repressive dictatorships supported by the United States. As a result, Guatemala is one of the poorest countries in Latin America, and also one of the most corrupt and dysfunctional.

The United States holds no small responsibility for this dismal state of affairs. During much of the Cold War, Washington repeatedly intervened in the domestic situation of Guatemala to empower autocrats and human rights abusers, resulting in disastrous consequences not only for Guatemalans, but also for the interests of the United States.

ADVERTISEMENT

Corrupt and indifferent leadership and broken rule of law have turned Guatemala into a major center of drug trafficking and produced an epidemic of violent crime and a bleak economic outlook for millions of Guatemalans already living on the edge of destitution. These conditions have contributed to a dramatic increase in the number of Guatemalan asylum seekers at the southern border of the United States.

Any sensible United States policy toward Guatemala must, for both moral and strategic reasons, reckon with this legacy and strive to address the poverty, violence, and impunity that remain at the root of the current challenges in the country. Such a policy approach need not exclude more targeted interventions aimed at managing migrant flows or curbing transnational crime, but to ignore the drivers of these problems or even worse, to aggravate them, would indeed be a grave mistake.

Yet this is exactly what the Trump administration has done. Its budgets have sought to slash assistance to the country, including a 75 percent reduction in funding for programs aimed at strengthening democracy and human rights. Even more troubling, the Trump administration has allowed Guatemalan elites to attack and undermine one of the few institutions in Latin America that has a proven track record of exposing corruption and strengthening the rule of law, which is the International Commission Against Impunity that is supported by the United Nations.

On migration, meanwhile, the Trump administration successfully strong armed outgoing President Jimmy Morales into an agreement under which Guatemala would serve as a “safe third country” for asylum seekers. Under the deal, asylum seekers who pass through Guatemala on their way to the United States could be returned there by federal authorities to have their asylum claims heard. Beyond the absurdity of expecting a country with fragile and corrupt institutions and widespread violence to process so many asylum seekers in a safe and orderly manner, the deal was arguably illegal under Guatemalan law and deeply unpopular domestically.

These misguided actions converged in the dispiriting elections, which saw right wing candidate Alejandro Giammattei prevail. Not only did he win by promising a law and order crackdown, but the electoral contest was further marred by the disqualification of a popular reformist candidate on dubious legal grounds. Giammattei, a former director of prisons, was backed by the same elites that campaigned for the dismantling of the International Commission Against Impunity under Morales.

ADVERTISEMENT

Unsurprisingly, Giammattei has announced that he does not intend to renew the mandate of the International Commission Against Impunity. Also unsurprisingly, his successful campaign was bolstered by his criticism of the “safe third country” agreement under Morales, which Giammattei he intends to revisit. There is little to celebrate in this outcome. After years of slow but tangible reform, the country appears poised to backslide into impunity and violence, while Guatemalans continue to flee crushing poverty and crime in large numbers.

The Trump administration appears set on repeating its failed approach elsewhere in Latin America, notably in Honduras, where the United States has also slashed foreign assistance, ignored creeping authoritarianism, and pursued a “safe third country” agreement, even as President Juan Orlando Hernandez faces accusations by federal prosecutors that he used the proceeds of drug trafficking to fund his election campaign.

If there are any lessons in United States policy towards Central America, it is that pursuing political objectives in the short term at the expense of bolstering democracy and human rights only leads to more trouble down the road, often at great cost to the people living in these countries. Unfortunately, the Trump administration seems to have no interest in learning from the past, but rather seems determined to repeat it.

Trevor Sutton is a policy fellow with the Center for American Progress and was a former investigator for the United Nations Development Programme.

By: AP | Published: June 7, 2020 9:23:53 am A representative for Kanye West confirmed that some of the money donated would fully cover college tuition costs for Floyd’s 6-year-old daughter, Gianna. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke, File) Kanye West has donated $2 million to support the families and legal teams for George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and […]

CHICAGO — No arrests were made Saturday as peaceful protests continued in Chicago. Protesters gathered at Union Park marched through the city’s West Side on Saturday afternoon, as the city prepared for another weekend of rallies. A protest called “Chicago March of Justice” started at 11 a.m. Saturday in Union Park, just hours after Friday’s […]

Demonstrators protest over the death of George Floyd in front of Trump Tower in Chicago on May 30. Xinhua News Agency/Xinhua News Agency/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Xinhua News Agency/Xinhua News Agency/Getty Images Demonstrators protest over the death of George Floyd in front of Trump Tower in Chicago on May 30. Xinhua News Agency/Xinhua […]

/EIN News/ — TIGO is recognized once again as a leading Great Place to Work in Latin America Luxembourg, June 2nd, 2020 – Millicom’s TIGO operations were ranked among the Top 25 Best Multinational Workplaces in Latin America, across all industries, obtaining the 13th place in the 2020 Great Place to Work® (GPTW) ranking. With […]

Experts have voiced fears that Latin America’s two largest economies are reopening too fast as a record number of Covid-19 deaths left Brazil poised to overtake Italy as the country with the world’s third-highest number of fatalities. The South American country recorded 1,262 deaths on Tuesday – a new daily record – taking its official […]

PANAMA CITY, 5 June 2020 – A recent UNICEF poll among youth in Latin America and the Caribbean shows that only a third of the respondents chose all correct answers when asked how COVID-19 is transmitted. More worryingly, about a third of the 10,500 young people surveyed in the region believe they are not at […]

One woman who has overcome the challenges of being queer in regional NSW wants to share a message of love and acceptance with the LGBTQI community, Jody Ekert describes herself as “a gal about town” with a passion for organising events and building strong communities. She grew up moving around Queensland, lived in Maryborough and […]

So it is the lone figure of Mladenov who is often seen shuttling between the sides. As the United Nations’ envoy for the “Middle East Peace Process,” however, the Bulgarian-born diplomat acknowledges that the process he is responsible for may be nothing more than a fading memory. “The title on my business card is completely […]

NOTHING LASTS FOREVER Tarek Osman In “The Dream Palace of the Americans” (November/December 2019), Michael Doran reviews the past 70 years of Arab-Israeli conflict and concludes that Israel will not “give back at the negotiating table what it has taken on the battlefield” because power dynamics in the Middle East favor Israel over its rivals. […]

BEIRUT (Tribune News Service) — Police vehicles crashing through crowds. Journalists shot at or arrested. Officers and self-appointed militiamen threatening protesters. As images of America’s rage explode on screen, people across the Middle East — no strangers to discontent, thoughts of revolution or the heavy-handed response of security forces — have been struck by scenes […]

One woman who has overcome the challenges of being queer in regional NSW wants to share a message of love and acceptance with the LGBTQI community, Jody Ekert describes herself as “a gal about town” with a passion for organising events and building strong communities. She grew up moving around Queensland, lived in Maryborough and […]

The MarketWatch News Department was not involved in the creation of this content. Jun 05, 2020 (AmericaNewsHour) — The Asia-Pacific 5G Market report provides an in-depth analysis of the Asia-Pacific 5G Market during the forecast period 2018-2023 which consists of the industry overview including the market size, volume, growth rate and recent trends and developments […]

The major Asia-Pacific markets closed higher on Friday while posting their biggest weekly rise in over eight years. Several key regional indexes have bounced back strongly following a historic period of volatility and uncertainty in March, as the world grappled with a rapidly spreading coronavirus pandemic that left many economies on pause as lockdown measures […]

Anand Stanley Appointed President Airbus Asia-Pacific Airbus has named Anand Stanley as President Airbus Asia-Pacific, effective 1 July 2020. Based in Singapore, Anand Stanley will lead the strategy and future positioning of Airbus and its divisions across the region. In this role he will have responsibility for commercial aircraft sales and customer affairs, group-wide government […]

PARIS—The killing of George Floyd has sparked marches and sporadic vandalism in Europe. In France, it has rekindled controversies over institutional racism and police violence in a society divided after the monthslong yellow-vest protests. Thousands gathered in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in Frankfurt and Berlin. Hamburg police said more than 1,000 people […]

For advanced economies dealing with economic disruptions from the coronavirus pandemic, the response of choice has been massive stimulus packages. Africa is doing without them. While central banks and governments in North America, Asia and Europe have offered trillions of dollars to prop up businesses hit by lockdowns and provide a safety net for the […]

Fresh anti-racism protests kicked off across Germany on Saturday, with demonstrators filling up city centers from Berlin to Dusseldorf. Thousands gathered in Alexanderplatz in Berlin’s city center, holding signs that said “Black Lives Matter” and “No justice, no peace.” Demonstrators, many of whom were dressed in black and wearing facemasks, also held up placards with slogans such […]